Malaysian envoy gets 9 months detention for indecent assault

WELLINGTON: A disgraced Malaysian diplomat who “terrorized” and indecently assaulted a woman in New Zealand was sentenced Thursday to nine months home detention. Mohammed Rizalman bin Ismail, who was a military attache at Malaysia’s Wellington embassy at the time of the attack, admitted to indecent assault last November after denying initial charges of attempted rape and burglary. Rizalman had followed Wellington woman Tania Billingsley to her home in May 2014, waited about 30 minutes outside and then entered the house and walked into her bedroom naked from the waist down. Rizalman’s lawyer Donald Stevens had cited extenuating circumstances including mental illness.